


Can You Hear Me?

by storybored



Series: 100 themes [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), Constantine: The Hellblazer (Comics)
Genre: Dead bird, Gen, Ghosts, John is an ass with a soft side, Magical drinking buddies, Once again Jason is suffering, We all agree on who's dead right?, Zatanna is tired, a sass if you will, a soft ass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 21:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14941601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storybored/pseuds/storybored
Summary: John didn't like Batman but if what he was saying was right. Then he was being haunted, and hauntings always had the possibility of rapidly escalating. He was there as a favor to Zatanna and because all things ghostly and occulty was his job you call the Mistress of Magic when you have a dimensional door in your library shooting out doppelgängers, not when it was shooting out demons. So he could handle a ghost or two.





	Can You Hear Me?

Jason followed Alfred around, just begging to be seen. He sat in the kitchen trying to force enough energy to get Alfred to realize he was there, he didn’t want to be ignored he got enough of that in crime alley. He didn’t care at this point if the attention was negative, he just wanted his grandfather to show him some attention, just a second. Just for someone to show that he was there. That they didn’t forget about him. His room was constantly shut off, no one went in there, Bruce didn’t he’d just walk by ignoring it, and Alfred would touch it, if only to steady himself. He hadn’t seen Dick at all but he rarely visited unless to fight with Bruce anyways. It didn’t trouble him too much. 

There was that damn case in the cave, his suit… one of the spares on display with a damn mocking plaque. Bruce loved him so there was no reason for the plaque to say that right?

When Bruce had his meetings with Oracle and Nightwing and the…...and the new guy, Jason would sit next to Bruce in the empty chair between him and Barbara. He’d spend a majority of the time glaring at the new guy. Three months. Bruce waited three goddamn months to replace him. Hopefully this guy lasted longer than Jason did, and Dick coming around more to be the new guy’s friend,  _ his brother _ . When he could barely stand to  be around Jason, and this guy got to have actual mentors besides Bruce and his own damn team when Jason was barely allowed out of Bruce’s sight. This kid got everything Jason couldn’t, people liked him, he was rich and well liked and smart,  _ oh so  _ **_smart_ ** . He got everything Jason had to work for be simply existing. It wasn’t fair.

Jason started to lash out from that, and black out as time went on. He’d come back to and see Tim sleeping with scratches on his arm, then jolt awake and stare through him instead of looking at him. 

Damn it! Why couldn’t anyone hear him? Wasn’t he still here? Why couldn’t anyone see him? He was  _ right there. _

* * *

 

John was there out of courtesy of Zatanna, and she didn’t even show up. So yeah of course he was upset. He was stick with rich people and a depressed Batman, a miserable Nightwing and the new Robin who was getting phantom scratches on his arms and having trouble sleeping. So of course he’d stay there, doesn’t mean he wasn’t going to complain about it. But what the guests were saying was interesting, a small boy with a red hoodie staying close to the wall and some of the guests would hear sobbing in the bathroom. He had yet to see the spirit for himself and properly kick it out if it was truly malicious and not a scared little boy who wanted attention. Constantine walked to the bathroom and immediately felt nauseous, it was a spirit and it was hurting, he splashed some water on his face,”Hello?” 

The kid appeared behind him faint, would be impossible to see unless you were trained in magic and knew where to look, if the bathroom was any color but that cream color he’d be lost in the shadows, he was so washed out. The kid looked shocked to see him and rubbed his eyes before looking at Constantine hostilely,”You can hear me?”

John kept his eyes trained on the mirror, but still staring at the kid,”Course I can. You’re right here and we’re having a talk.”

“Then why can’t anyone else see me? Or hear me? What am I doing wrong?” The boy looked frustrated and the specter twitched, no longer a kid in a hoodie, but in a torn and bloodied robin uniform, the injuries on his legs the cuts and tears in flesh. John was often thought to be a cold bastard but that made his heart break, the ghosts of kids were always the worst, rarely a quiet death. Mainly spirits of confusion and fear, they didn’t know what happened, but they felt it, and they would often have the fear that whatever killed them would follow them to the afterlife or was after them when they were in the in-between. John went to exit the bathroom and invite the kid to follow him when he cracked the door open but it was quickly slammed shut.”No, don’t go.”

“Jason? You’re name is Jason right? I’m John.” John asked leaning on the door that is stuck. The ghost nodded,”Your Da’ misses you. But it’s really not healthy for you to stay here. You’re gonna keep hurting.”

Jason became more solidified and curled up on himself,”I just want to be remembered. I just want my dad.” 

John sat down next to him, and put an arm around him. Jason always hated being touched when he was alive but he now leaned into the touch and buried himself into Constantine’s chest. He knew Jason was kinda a small kid, Batman was a big guy but having this child pressed to his chest and sob loudly and earnestly made him realize how small Jason actually was,”Not a day goes by where he doesn’t think about you. But you are doing more harm to yourself by staying here.”

Jason clenched his hands in John’s shirt,”Will it hurt? It hurt the last time.”

John thought Jason couldn’t make him feel any worse, but Jason suffered for a majority of his life and it just made him a kind empathetic boy. The kind of kid that’d make any parent proud,”It’s like going to sleep.”

John shifted slightly so the bathtub wasn’t digging into his back, and Jason dug his hands into John’s chest,”Please! Don’t go! I don’t want to be alone.”

John disentangled Jason’s hands and held them,”I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay with you.”

Jason hiccuped, and Constantine felt his chest grow cold as Jason’s ghost sucked away the heat surrounding him unconsciously trying to gather enough energy to make the journey to the afterlife. John shut his eyes knowing how bright that light could get and sighed, feeling the weight leave his chest. This wasn’t a malicious spirit, it was an emotionally damaged teenager who didn’t want to be alone as he passed on. John waited for the temperature in the room to stabilize before trusting himself to move. 

He heard the door crack and opened his eyes, seeing black sparkly material,”John, what are you doing?”

“Sitting on the floor, Zee. What’s it look like?” John stood up,”Bats doesn’t have to worry about his ghost anymore. He’s been dealt with.”

Zatanna gripped John’s art tightly, her eyes becoming like steel,”What did you do?”

John pulled his arm out of her grip, and rubbed it,”Nothing much. It was just a kid, he was stuck. So I sat with him. Didn’t even have to reach into my bag of parlor tricks.” 

“You want to catch me up?” Zatanna said opening the door allowing John to slip out of the bathroom.

“Not much to catch up on. The kid just didn’t want to be alone so I sat with him.” John readjusted his tie and pulled up his sleeves,”Another day, another ghost.”

**Author's Note:**

> Anybody have good Zatanna comic recommendations for me?


End file.
